Winifred Mary Tait, Parramatta Mental Hospital Matron 1913-1935

15 Apr, 2020

Winifred Mary Tait was born in 1876 in Goulburn, N.S.W. She was the daughter of Andrew McDonald and Isabel (or sabella/Isobel) McLean (Maclean) Tait of ‘Hayfield’, Carlingford, N.S.W. She was a trained nurse having graduated from Sydney Hospital. In 1913, she became matron at the Parramatta Hospital for the Insane, succeeding Miss E Grace Newton.

During the war, she enlisted on 25 November 1914, aged 39, having been a member of the Australian Army Nursing Service (AANS) since 1905. She embarked from Melbourne, Victoria on 2 October 1916 as Temporary Matron of No. 2 Section Sea Transport Staff aboard the HMAT Nestor A71[1] During her absence, Sister L Lynch was acting matron[2] of the then renamed Parramatta Mental Hospital. After she ’put in four years of hard strenuous work with the soldiers in the field’, her name was listed on the Mental Hospital, Parramatta 1914-1918 Roll of Honor.[3]

First World War No. 2 Australian General Hospital. Winifred Tait is listed as being the last nurse in the second row seated from left to right (Source: Australian War Memorial, H18334)[4]

Post war, she resumed her position as matron and remained in Parramatta Mental Hospital until 1935.

At a chance Parramatta Mental Hospital nurses re-union in 1949 at the now demolished Hiawatha guest house on George Street, Parramatta, although not present due to illness, her letter of apology was read out and she was said to be living in Whale Beach.[5]

Australian War Memorial. (1914). Outdoor group portrait of nurses of No 2 Australian General Hospital who sailed from Sydney on 28 November 1914 aboard HMAT Kyarra. [photograph], accession number H18334. Retrieved from https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/C1423880